So I had some excitement last night: my sleeping pad has a pinhole leak in it. I don't know how I got it, but I had to throw a breath or two into it every 45 minutes or so in order to stay aloft -- not a great night of sleep. I have a patch kit, so I hope I can find & patch it (or else this will be a very uncomfortable hike). On the other hand, sleeping with my mosquito-net hat on worked like a charm -- no bug bites!

As I set off on my hike (walking along the road I had slept on), I came across an interesting site: bee hives. The road had lots of bee colonies, and it was cool to stand there for a minute and just watch them going about their lives, making delicious honey. Smart little critters!

After some time, I came across someone's house which was under construction. There wasn't anyone working there, and I saw it as a perfect opportunity to dry out my gear (there was heavy condensation last night so my sleeping bag was a bit unhappy. There was also a convenient stack of pallets to sit on and munch on some trail mix while I waited for everything to bake.

I also took this opportunity to blow up my sleeping pad and listen very carefully for the leak. I was able to track it down and it was thankfully not on a seam or anywhere difficult! I slapped a patch on there and then rolled it up to put it away while the glue cures.

Once everything was dried out, I got to hiking again, which took me up and over a mountain. This was actually kind of a treat because it felt like "real" hiking and wasn't a road. Also it was partly cloudy, but nice weather and great views, so that was just peachy.

After a while, I reached the top and was rewarded with a wonderful view before descending.

This is unfortunately where my pictures for the day end because from here on out -- another 4 hours or so -- it was nothing but mud. And when I say "mud" I really mean muddy water that's between ankle and knee deep. Continuously. For miles and miles and miles.

It was horrible.

I met up with a Norwegian local who was out hiking, so it was nice to be able to share the misery with someone. We wound up setting up camp on the porch of someone's cabin because everything else was just mud. Barf.